Anthem topped the UK boxed game sales chart during its first week of release, but with half the physical sales of BioWare's previous game Mass Effect Andromeda. Without digital sales through EA's Origin service on PC, or download sales on PlayStation or Xbox, it's difficult to draw exact comparisons. But from the comparisons we can make, Anthem's sales do not paint a hugely positive picture.

More than 8 million UK adults would struggle to cope in a cashless society, according to a major report which claims that the country’s “cash infrastructure” is in danger of collapsing. With Britons increasingly turning to digital payments, and bank branches and ATMs closing, the Access to Cash Review said companies and organisations providing “essential” services should be required to ensure that consumers can continue to pay by cash.

A lurcher dubbed "Britain's loneliest dog" has finally found a "forever" home. Two-year-old Hector had been in a shelter since he was rescued by the RSPCA over welfare concerns in 2017. Hundreds of people from all over the world offered to re-home him after a campaign by Little Valley Animal Shelter in Exeter, Devon, went viral.

Shamima Begum, who joined the Islamic State group in Syria aged 15, is to lose her UK citizenship. Whitehall sources said it was possible to strip the 19-year-old of British nationality as she was eligible for citizenship of another country. Her family's lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, said they were "disappointed" with the decision and were considering "all legal avenues" to challenge it. Ms Begum, who left east London in 2015, had said she wanted to return home.

Around 200 animal activists have stormed a pig farm near Lincoln as part of a protest about the factory farming industry in the UK. Meat The Victims UK arrived at Sandilands Pigs in Newark Road near Laughterton in their droves this morning, Saturday, March 2. The group say that they want to 'expose the reality of factory farming'. 100 activists are inside one of the pig holding pens, while another 100 are outside too.

Scottish couples who chose a humanist wedding are less likely to divorce than those who had other types of marriage ceremony, figures for the BBC suggest. Humanist weddings have been legal in Scotland since 2005 and are now more popular than Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic weddings combined. Marriage experts said divorce rates across the UK generally were declining.

UK telecoms group BT has seen no evidence that technology from China's Huawei poses a security risk. "Over the years that we've worked with Huawei, we've not yet seen anything that gives us cause for concern," Marc Allera, the CEO of BT's consumer brands, told CNN on Friday. "We work closely with a large number of bodies — government and security," he added. "We continue to work with all of those relevant bodies to answer all the questions that are being asked right now."

Children from low-income families will have access to healthy food during the Christmas school holidays thanks to £100,000 from the Scottish Government. The money is additional funding for the Cash for Kids charity to provide food and activities for more than 7,000 children from poorer backgrounds across Scotland. Another £48,000 is being awarded by ministers to 12 smaller, community organisations for similar projects during the Christmas and February school holidays.

A story of rampant child abuse—ignored and abetted by the police—is emerging out of the British town of Rotherham. Until now, its scale and scope would have been inconceivable in a civilized country. Its origins, however, lie in something quite ordinary: what one Labour MP called "not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat."

A British man is sentenced to life for the second time today for a bloody attack on a defenceless victim. Stephen Leonard (57) received a first life in 1979 for the murder of a 3-year-old girl. That case was so horrible that its details were never revealed. In 2002, however, he was released after a parole committee ruled that he was “no longer dangerous”. In the summer of last year, however, he struck again. Equally merciless.

An electricity failure has been blamed for the escape of an endangered red panda from Belfast Zoo.
The animal went missing on Sunday, sparking a search across the Belfast surburb of Glengormley where the zoo is located.
After a 12-hour search through Sunday evening and into Monday morning, the zoo announced the small cat-like creature - named Amber - had been found safe and well.

Orbex has unveiled its Prime rocket, which is designed to deliver small satellites into the Earth’s orbit and will feature the world’s largest 3D-printed rocket engine. The completed engineering prototype of the Stage 2 rocket was showcased to members from the UK and European space communities at the opening of Orbex’s new headquarters and rocket design facility in Forres, Scotland.

A charity working to stop illegal evictions has urged the Metropolitan police to give its officers better training after they failed to arrest a landlord who allegedly forced his way into a family’s home with a crowbar and tried to drag them down the stairs. Roz Spencer of Safer Renting, an advice service for tenants backed by four London boroughs, said people were being evicted illegally every week in most British towns and cities, but the police nearly always failed to treat it as a crime.

Margaret Thatcher’s favourite free-market thinktank has called on the government to legalise cannabis, arguing that the move could generate more than £1bn in extra tax revenues every year, as well as savings in health and other public services. Britain’s black market in cannabis is worth £2.6bn annually, with 255 tonnes sold to more than 3 million people last year, according to the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

A girl has died after apparently being thrown from a bouncy castle on a beach, Norfolk police have said. The incident occurred at about 11am on Sunday at Gorleston beach. Members of the public and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution rushed to help the girl, who suffered serious injuries and was in cardiac arrest, East of England ambulance service (EEAST) said. She was taken to the James Paget hospital but died from her injuries.

Theresa May sparked a huge row when she blamed local councils for the collapse of bus services – despite her own government slashing their budgets in half. The prime minister also claimed that routes were disappearing because “working habits are changing”, again rejecting any responsibility for the crisis. The controversy was raised in the Commons after the Campaign for Better Transport pleaded with ministers to step in – after 188 services were cut in the last year alone.

Even the Freemasons cannot ignore the subject of trans rights. The society is to finally allow women to be members – but only if they joined as men. “A Freemason who after initiation ceases to be a man does not cease to be a Freemason,” says new guidance issued by the Freemasons’ governing body, the United Grand Lodge of England. Those who have transitioned from female to male can also apply, the guidance makes clear.

The UK will investigate allegations that British World War Two wrecks in Asia have been targeted by scavengers, the defence secretary says. Gavin Williamson said he was "very concerned" to hear claims that four shipwrecks off the Malaysian and Indonesian coasts had been looted. The Mail on Sunday said HMS Tien Kwang, HMS Kuala, HMS Banka and SS Loch Ranza were targeted for their metal.

A refreshingly positive thank you note was left on an ambulance this week – and people are seriously loving it. The note, which was left on a vehicle in Wales, had £5 attached and saw a homeowner praising paramedics instead of attacking them. Twitter user Dewi Lloyd tweeted the note, saying: ‘Heart warming note left on one of the Flintshire Ambulances #Welshambulance’...

The number of deaths in England and Wales due to the synthetic opioid fentanyl rose by 29% in 2017, Office for National Statistics data shows. Forms of the drug - used to treat cancer pain - are often imported illegally from Chinese laboratories and sold to users via the dark web. Deaths from psychoactive substances like spice or mephedrone halved. Drug policy campaigners called on the government to fund drug treatment and stop criminalising users.

A giant balloon of a bikini-clad Sadiq Khan has been flown in London as part of a campaign to oust the capital's mayor. Campaigners raised £58,182 for the 29ft-long blimp, which was launched in Parliament Square earlier. Mr Khan said people were "welcome" to look at the balloon but he did not think the swimwear suited him.

A former chief of the UK’s naval staff has said the nation does not have enough ships to patrol its waters, warning of “disastrous” consequences after Brexit. Lord West of Spithead , former first sea lord, said the “insufficient” number of ships had been exposed by recent clashes between British and French fishermen over scallops. Rocks and smoke bombs were hurled at British fishing vessels in the English Channel during skirmishes on Tuesday. French mariners are angry about a domestic ban preventing them from harvesting the scallop-rich region while British boats have free rein to fish.

The unusually hot summer of 2018 has proved challenging for farmers across the UK. Among other things, the scorching weather and lack of rain has damaged crops, and the grass used to feed farm animals too. Unfortunately the unusual may become more usual as the effects of climate change are felt more frequently across the world. The high ambient temperatures and humidity seen this year, as well as extreme weather conditions such as flooding, are a significant challenge to the future of farming.

Two thirds of girls and women aged 14 to 21 have been sexually harassed in public, according to a survey. The poll by charity Plan International UK examined the exposure of young females to conduct including catcalling, groping and upskirting. More than 1,000 girls and women were asked about their experiences in public settings, for instance when they are in the street, on transport, travelling to school or work, or in a park, bar or club.

Almost 4 million children in the UK live in households that would struggle to afford to buy enough fruit, vegetables, fish and other healthy foods to meet the official nutrition guidelines, a groundbreaking food poverty study reveals. The research, by the Food Foundation thinktank, says the diminishing ability of low-income families to pay for healthy food is consigning the least well-off to a greater risk of diet related illness, such as obesity and diabetes, as well as widening health inequalities across society.

Electric and other ultra-low emission cars, vans and taxis could be given special green number plates to boost awareness and increase the use of environmentally “clean” driving. Green plates are already used in Norway, Canada and China on green vehicles including electric and hydrogen cars, making them both distinct and visible to other road others.

UK news organisations have cited tweets from Russian trolls more than 100 times, a Guardian investigation has found, in stories about topics including Donald Trump, Donald Glover and Lena Dunham. In June the US Congress released details of 1,000 accounts that Twitter believes were run by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a state-backed misinformation operation based in St Petersburg, adding to more than 2,000 accounts the company had already identified.

The two men identified as suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack have appeared on Russia’s state-funded TV station RT, claiming they visited the “wonderful” English city as tourists to see its cathedral. In their first interview since being charged in the UK with attempted murder, the men said they may have approached Sergei Skripal’s house by accident on 4 March, but denied that they were carrying any poison or that they had committed any crime.